New roguelike game Dome Keeper envisions Terraria meets Aliens in a tower defense game that combines underground mining escapades with turret blasting reminiscent of arcade classic Missile Command. Dome Keeper just released a demo on Steam ahead of the upcoming Steam Next Fest 2022 event, so you can check it out for yourself and delve deep underground in search of the resources desired to defend your dome from the deadly denizens descending upon you.
Dome Keeper sets the player in a dome atop the surface of a mysterious, hostile planet. Each run, you must descend into the depths below, mining out a path in search of precious materials used for upgrades. The terrain is divided up into square blocks that will be familiar to crafting game veterans, and mining is as simple as bumping into them enough times to break them. The deeper you get, the harder and thus slower mining becomes – so you’ll want to start upgrading your equipment before you head too far down.
As with the likes of Minecraft and Terraria, resources are often clumped closely together, so if you spot a glimmer along your tunnel, digging into it will often reveal more valuable materials ready for collection. Once mined, resources must be manually dragged up to your dome for storage and use. This is done by holding a button to tether resources to your suit, although the more you drag behind you the slower you’ll move, eventually becoming completely immobile until you drop a few chunks on the ground.
Once your resources are at the base, they can be fed into upgrades for your drill and jetpack, allowing faster mining and traversal along with the ability to carry more resources at once with less impact on your manoeuvrability. Importantly, you can also upgrade your dome, feeding into the second (and perhaps most important aspect) of Dome Keeper – defending your base from hordes of weird alien beasties.
The tower defense section is handled by a giant laser atop your dome, which can be rotated across its surface in an arc to target any direction. You can hear incoming threats and direct attacks on your dome from down in the tunnels, so you’ll know when it’s time to dash back up and clean house. Upgrades to the dome also display handy information such as the time before the next attack and your dome’s current health level.
Currently Dome Keeper offers two difficulty settings – the default ‘brutal’ setting and a slightly less intimidating ‘hard but doable’ option. It certainly feels pretty punishing at first, and the telltale sound of banging from the surface will soon have you rushing back up in a panic – you can check it out for yourself in a Steam demo available now on the game’s store page.
We’ll keep you up to date on any standout upcoming PC games set for Steam Next Fest. In other crafty news, one fan’s Lego Terraria build is tackling bosses and underground mining scenes. We’ve also got all the details on the Minecraft 1.19 The Wild update, as well as news of a possible Minecraft RTS game from the developers of Minecraft Dungeons.